An analysis was conducted January 27, 2003, of the relative rankings of some of the larger political sites on the World Wide Web of the Internet.

Alexa services was used to obtain the relative rankings of some of the larger political sites.

Review these graphs taken January 27, 2003 from the Alexa services site. The graphs show the relative rankings of freerepublic.com against salon.com, democraticunderground.com, and bartcop.com, and finally versus rushlimbaugh.com.

Freerepublic.com is a conservative website that boasts over 90,000 registered users, and is funded solely by donations from the users and "lurkers" to the website.

Salon.com is a publicly held company that was once listed on the NASDAQ, but has since been de-listed to the OTC pink sheet. Salon is funded by subscriptions to its website, but a brief view of their historical stock price shows it was almost $15 per share in 1999, but has since steadily dropped, and is now trading at just $.05 a share today. Salon.com is also bleeding money profusely, and as the graph below shows it is also losing its ranking on the Internet.

Freerepublics ranking January 27, 2003 was 1251, meaning that only 1250 sites on the entire Internet had more hits than freerepublic.com today. However, Freerepublics ranking has grown by 363 in a very short time, in only the last 3 months. Salon.com, however, has dropped ranking during the same period, and today their ranking stands at 1619 with a 3 month average ranking of 751. Freerepublic.com has a 3 month average ranking of 1803.

The decline of Salon.com is very evident here, but it only tells part of the story. Salon.com is bleeding cash at a high rate, and Salon is suffering declining revenue.

Freerepublic.com vs. Democratunderground.com - a democrat centered, user supported site that also allows their users to post in a forum type format. A review of DU shows a very open forum, allowing (and perhaps encouraging) incredibly vulgar language. The users of Freerepublic.com are held to strict limits on vulgar language, and freerepublics posters generally have a sharp sense of humor and fun.

Freerepublic.com vs. Bartcop.com. Bartcop is another forum type site, that allows a high level of vulgar language and rather coarse discussions. The sharpness, clarity, logic, and humor at freerepublic.com really becomes evident when compared to bartcop or DU.

Freerepublic is not only gaining fast on their competition, they have soared lately compared to Rushlimaugh.com. Rush Limbaugh changed format in December to a mostly subscription site, and the number have hits to that site has dropped.

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Long held assumptions about political Internet sites seem to bolster the recent November, 2002 Republican victories in the House and Senate, and the popularity and high approval ratings of President Bush. It seems that those victories, and the Internet rankings, are showing that there seems to be a definite American shift to the right on the political spectrum. All these liberal interactive and subscription sites have been losing ranking, and losing at a definitive rate. But the simultaneous growth of freerepublic shows that it's not that political websites are losing ranking, but it's definitely the left leaning political sites that are suffering the heaviest losses of interest among web surfers. Perhaps the future may show a shift back to the left, but for now the conservatives are enjoying a powerful resurgence, and it looks to be getting stronger by the day. George Bush looks like he may be enjoying a long, strong ride for the next two years as long as this trend continues.

Serious discussions here require thought in response which takes time to formulate and verify. This keeps the number of overall hits relatively low. A response of the type that passes for deep thought at the other sites, "Bush sucks", doesnt take long to formulate and frees posters up for more hits. In other words, the "hits" ranking really doesnt mean anything.

I had to do a lot of self-educating when I came here and I am still learning. When I get someone new to sign up I send them a bunch of helpful links. Some are motivated to learn their way around and some aren't. Personally I love the way FR is set up and there is very little I would change. On the rare occasion I post on any other board it feels very awkward and I especially miss the ability to use html. I wish we could use it with FReepmail.

Here is a couple of links to help you learn basic html and how to post images and such. If I can learn it, anybody can.

I must be stupid or something, but the higher numbers are lower on the scale, not higher (the graph is flipped or something...weird). Wouldn't this mean FR is actually doing worse than these other sites?

I have a hard time believing this is true, which is why I am asking. The conclusion that we are doing better makes more sense, but I don't get that from the graphs that are upside down...lol.

164
posted on 01/28/2003 10:30:00 AM PST
by rwfromkansas
(What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. --- Westminster Catechism Q1)

Don't say that too loud. You'll crush the hopes and dreams of all the fundementalists and prudes around here. They're convinced South Park (And The Simpsons) is nothing but a liberal promoting mindless cartoon.

For all the crap Free Republic gets for its moderators and so-called "censorship", we can all be thankful that we are not the cesspool that is DU. And that's just what this website would become if we didn't police it.

"What the heck is Bartcop (?) doing that cycles their readership THAT much every week?"

They come up with a new hoax about Bush. Either he is an alien, a big oil executive, a nazi, a father of several foreign born kids, a muslim, etc.

The hoaxes are a hoot, except when you realize that these dopes actually believe every one of them simultaneously. I have posted there many times to jerk their chains, but trying to post without getting booted but still getting idiotic responses is a tough trick.

"If we are elevated, our elevation will have been accomplished through our own instrumentality... No people who has solely depended upon aid from others ever stood forth in the attitude of freedom." - Frederick Douglass

I must be stupid or something, but the higher numbers are lower on the scale, not higher (the graph is flipped or something...weird). Wouldn't this mean FR is actually doing worse than these other sites?

You're reading it upside down. Think of it as a Billboard chart, and you're Casey Kasem. The higher notch a site occupies, the more popular it is.

187
posted on 01/28/2003 10:51:41 PM PST
by Timesink
(I offered her a ring, she gave me the finger)

1) Click on "Tools" and "Internet Options".2) Click on "General".3) At the top of that, you will see "Home Page".4) In that field, erase whatever your current home page is.5) Copy and paste this address in that field: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/browse6)Click "Apply" and "OK".

Freerepublic.com vs. Bartcop.com. Bartcop is another forum type site, that allows a high level of vulgar language and rather coarse discussions.

Bartcop is a complete joke, I think there's maybe 50 extremely angry, miserable, crotchety old liberals posting there. Occasionally some of them will come over here as disruptors. If you ever try to post there you'll be shut down before you even start. Occasionally they'll let a conservative in, but usually they'll gang up on him like a pack of hyenas. Some time ago they were more open, but conservatives would go in and usually make mince meat of their arguments. At this point they'd resort to vulgarities, and baiting remarks until the hapless conservative was forced to respond. Then they'd claim that they won the debate and that most freepers were too stupid to debate them. As time went on the discussions got more and more meaningless, so they shut themselves down and only let trusted members post. Now it's down to a handful of EXTREME leftists, generally patting each other on the back. Occasionally I'll peek in to see what they're discussing but by and large it's a waste of time.

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